Exxon Mobil starts up third advanced recycling unit in Baytown, calls for federal policy changes

February 5, 2026

Spring-based Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) has started up its third advanced recycling unit in Baytown.

The new unit increases Exxon’s recycling capacity to process up to 250 million pounds of plastic waste a year.

Globally, the company plans to reach about 450 million pounds of recycling capacity annually by the end of the year. The company previously said it plans to reach 1 billion pounds of capacity annually by 2027.

Exxon said the advanced recycling method allows the company to handle plastics that are harder to recycle. Those plastics can be turned into feedstocks for other products such as fuel or new plastic.

In November 2024, Exxon announced it was investing more than $200 million to expand its advanced recycling projects in Baytown and Beaumont.

At the time, Exxon had processed more than 70 million pounds of plastic waste in Baytown with its advanced recycling technology. The company’s first recycling facility in Baytown started operations in December 2022, and Exxon reached a final investment decision earlier in 2024 to add a second recycling unit in Baytown.

Exxon initially said its first Baytown unit would have the capacity to process 30,000 tonnes of plastic per year and later increased that figure to 36,000 tonnes per year, or about 79 million pounds per year, making it one of the largest such recycling facilities in North America, according to the company. It was the first of its kind for Exxon.

The 2024 investment in Baytown and Beaumont planned to add 350 million pounds per year of recycling capacity, bringing Exxon’s total capacity to 500 million pounds per year. The company plans to continue developing advanced recycling projects in North America, Europe and Asia.

“The world’s plastic waste challenge will be solved with innovation, collaboration and supportive government policy to improve waste management and circularity,” Karen McKee, then-president of ExxonMobil Product Solutions, said at the time. “ExxonMobil is doing its part by developing scalable technology, investing in recycling infrastructure and helping our customers meet their circularity goals.”

Moving forward, Exxon said it needs supportive policy frameworks and supports “federal legislation that would officially recognize advanced recycling as recycling, establish clear standards for recycled content claims, and ensure alignment across federal agencies, providing clarity for both industry and consumers,” the company said in a news release.

Exxon also is investing to try to smooth out other speed bumps in the plastic recycling process. Exxon formed a joint venture — called Cyclyx International LLC — with New Hampshire-based plastic recycling company Agilyx Corp. in 2021 to focus on aggregating and pre-processing large volumes of plastic waste. In 2022, Cyclyx and the Houston Recycling Collaboration launched a program expanding the plastic materials accepted for recycling at the Kingwood Recycling Center to nearly all plastics.

Also in 2022, Exxon, Cyclyx and LyondellBasell Industries NV (NYSE: LYB) said they would invest about $100 million to develop a plant in the Houston area focused on sorting and processing plastic waste. The plastic feedstock processed at the Cyclyx Circularity Center will supply Exxon's advanced recycling plant in Baytown, LyondellBasell's own advanced recycling projects and other mechanical recycling operations.

In 2024, the joint venture announced plans for a second facility, this time in the Fort Worth area, with $135 million in investment.